FDR and the New Deal
FDR and the New Deal Outline
 A. Election Promise
 B. Banking Legislation
 C. New Deal Programs
 D. End of Prohibition
 E. Second New Deal
 F. Critics
 G. Minorities
 H. Eleanor Roosevelt
 I. Supreme Court
 J. End of New Deal
 K. Legacy of New Deal
A. Election Promise
 Elected 1932, promised help through a “New Deal”
 Broken into three “100 Days” periods
 FDR sent LOTS of legislation to Congress
 3 progressive goals
1. Fix America’s economy
2. Get people back to work
3. Help society from falling again
 “Fireside Chats” = FDR’s radio messages (60 million
listeners)
 First Fireside Chat video
B. Banking Legislation
 First focus = close all banks
 Emergency Banking Act (passed Congress in 7 hours)
 Examined/labeled all banks in America
 Strong, wavering, or hopeless
 $1billion given to help strong/wavering
 90% of surviving banks reopened with govt. help
B. Banking Legislation
 New federal agencies/rules created
 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
 Regulates stock market
 Glass-Steagall Act (ended 1999)
 Banks can’t use deposits in stock market
 FDIC
 Government insurance in banks
C. New Deal Programs
 Second focus = farming
 Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
 Increase prices by paying farmers NOT to grow things
 Wheat, corn, hogs, cotton, tobacco, rice, milk
 Paid $100 million to destroy 25% cotton crop
 Killed ~6 million piglets
 Controversies
 Many Americans going hungry!
 Large farmers benefitted the most
 African Americans kicked off tenant farms
C. New Deal Programs
 Third focus = unemployment/production
 New government involvement in economy
 National Recovery Administration (NRA) set “fair practices”
 Prices, minimum wage, maximum hours
 Right to form unions and collective bargaining
 Businesses complained
 Declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court
C. New Deal Programs
 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
 First Federal public relief program
 Employed 2.9 million men (17-25)
 Worked in national forests and parks
$30 month
o $22 sent home to wife/parents
C. New Deal Programs
 Tennessee Valley Authority (1933)
 Built dams in Tennessee for flood control and cheap power
 Argument over constitutionality
 Should government control natural resources?
D. End of Prohibition
 Beer-Wine Revenue Act
 Legalized beer/light wines, Taxed Both
 21st Amendment passed in 1933
 Ended Prohibition in America
E. Second New Deal
 2 years after first New Deal, many still unemployed
 Works Progress Administration (WPA)
 Employed ~3 million Americans, spent $11 BILLION
 6,000 schools/2,500 hospitals/13,000 playgrounds
 Paid writers, actors, artists, musicians
 Murals, symphonies, plays, histories
E. Second New Deal
 Most important program?
 Social Security Act
 Insurance plan for retirement, disability, & unemployment
 Taxes taken out of payroll, benefits at retirement
 “no politician can ever scrap my social security program”
F. Critics
 Main criticisms = too far OR not far enough
 Biggest political threat = Huey Long, Louisiana politician
 Plans for poor at expense of rich
 Incredibly popular, killed year before ‘36 election
G. Minorities
 Many racist and sexist problems in America
 Native Americans finally given citizenship in 1924
 Mexican-Americans faced discrimination & poverty
 Mexican Repatriation Act
 African-Americans had 3x higher unemployment
 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) legalized “separate but equal”
 Segregation based on color
 65% African Americans not covered by Social Security Act
 Didn’t cover farmers or domestic workers
H. Eleanor Roosevelt
 Gave FDR advice throughout presidency
 African Americans placed in FDR’s administration
 First woman on presidential cabinet =
 Francis Perkins, Sec. of Labor
 Marian Anderson was first African American to perform at
White House
 Blocked from singing at Constitution Hall in 1939
 Roosevelts allowed performance at Lincoln Memorial
 Crowd of ~75,000 watched (video)
“75,000 Hear Concert By Marian Anderson at
Lincoln Memorial,” The Daily Messenger, New
York, 10 April 1939.
I. Supreme Court
 Supreme Court ruled some legislation unconstitutional
 Roosevelt worried about losing everything
 FDR pushed idea of increasing the number of justices
 Appoint judges for everyone over 70
 Public saw president trying to take too much power
 Accused of “Packing the Court”
 FDR’s plan never voted on in Congress
J. End of the New Deal
 By 1939, New Deal was over for 2 reasons
1. Growing conservative opposition
2. Growing problems in Europe
 Was the New Deal a success?
 Set out to get people back to work and help society
from falling again
 Unemployment still high in 1939 (~15%)
K. Legacy of New Deal
 Federal involvement in people’s lives greatly increased
 Many looked to government to fix problems
 Created a debate that continues today
 Responsible for Economic & Social Stability
 Many programs still exist today
 Top achievement = Social Security Act
 “no politician can ever scrap my social security
program…” - FDR, 1935
 MANY have tried!